EA's SimCity saga has provided no shortage of comedy. Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw just yesterday proudly announced that the company is "hearing from thousands of people who are playing across regions, trading, communicating and loving the Always-Connected functionality." Surely EA must be receiving a mountain of complaints as well, unless it somehow found a way to prevent customers from even contacting the support team. Hmmm...

As EA forum member LeLedg and others have accidentally discovered in a thread about customers trying to make a legitimate SimCity complaints, EA is preventing the customer assistance hotline number from even appearing in the forums. When you type out the number 866-543-5435, it is replaced by an asterisk, a common message board function typically used to block course language. Just to be safe, the forum-goers typed other permutations of the number in addition to completely different phone numbers -- it's only EA's number that's censored.

There is a likelihood that this is a big misunderstanding, that this function was implemented well before the SimCity debacle to prevent people from spamming the number in the forums. Yeah, about as likely as being able to reach EA via any other means, so not very. A handful of customers have already noted that speaking to a rep via live chat session is ineffective, instead insisting on phone calls. Actually tracking down the number on EA's site is a fruitless endeavor, but the fact that EA is blocking said number from visibly appearing in the forums makes it seem like EA wants to pretend that everything is hunky-dory in Sim Land.

A lot of companies do not make it easy to contact their customer support, especially with a phone number. I'm not saying that it's acceptable, but EA are not special in that.

In other words EA likes to look like it's providing decent support without actually having to provide it. It's incredibly sleazy to bury the support number, especially when it's only done to reduce support costs.

I have had beef with EA support for the last 2 years. First it was ToR: Collectors Edition. It came damaged from production with the DVD's being unusable (but box was in perfect shape). GameStop stated that it was EA who needs to replace it. I contacted EA Support and their support stated that "Product is not under warranty." I told them "You have a 90-day warranty policy." They hung up. I called again, this time they hung up when I mentioned my name 4x. Now I have an issue with Battlefield 3 where PunkBuster will not let me play. (I have a legitimate copy, it is also installed, re-installed, patched, etc.).

Luckily I have had no issue playing SimCity but I still want bigger maps, offline mode, etc.

EA needs to let their subsidiaries control their own games, not upper management with money on their mind.

In other words EA likes to look like it's providing decent support without actually having to provide it. It's incredibly sleazy to bury the support number, especially when it's only done to reduce support costs.

A lot of companies do not make it easy to contact their customer support, especially with a phone number. I'm not saying that it's acceptable, but EA are not special in that.

I see companies making it difficult yes (usually its hidden in /support/contact/officebranch/contact page), but to go out of their way to hide it just for when others give it? I think this is new for a 'legit' business.

I agree a lot of companies do this. Certain companies say it might be because they want to change their number or 'ensure they use FAQs or online assistance' as it might easier for the customer than ringing a number.

Sure EA made a few mistakes with Simcity, which is in mind not any where near horribleness of Gearbox's Colonial Marines. I know everyone likes to beat EA down, but this is a little over the top in my mind.

Because everytime people vote with their wallets on EA, EA cans the game, shuts down the studio and blames piracy for poor sales. They then move onto the next game franchise. Its at the point where people have realized if they want to play the game in any form they have to put up with them.